What Is a Tooth Burnisher?

A tooth burnisher removes surplus edges and deepens grooves in dental carvings. It is a hand-held dental instrument that also smooths and polishes a dental restoration and removes scratches from an amalgam (dental filling material) surface, at the end of a dental restoration procedure where the tooth was filled or sculpted to repair it.

History

• Dental instruments have been found in Pompeii and other Roman settlements. Tooth burnishers made a later appearance when the procedures involved in dental restoration became popular. The January 1984 issue of Medical History shows an ornate silver set of dental burnishers made from silver and gold that were reputedly owned by a dentist to the Swedish Royal Family, though no confirmation of this has been found. The mineral tips of these burnishers are made from agate and bloodstone.

Types

• Tooth burnisher types are based on the shape of their ends. Flat plastic burnishers, Ball burnishers, Beavertail burnishers, Cone burnishers, T-ball burnishers and Rotary burnishers describe the different ends to the burnishing tools. A Ball burnisher's working end, for example, is applied when a sculpting application on a dental restoration necessitates the shape of a ball. The burnishers themselves can be single or double-ended and the heads are usually angled for ease of use.

Function

• The head of a tooth burnisher is a specific shape for a specific type of polishing or finishing. The fillings and dental sculpting materials, when finished with restoration, need a polishing or detailing to complete the procedure. Dental burnishing tools are designed to do this by smoothing out the amalgams (fillings) while they are still slightly malleable.

Design Drawbacks

• Steel burnishers, when used on gold fillings, would become coated with gold after only a short time, according to The Dental Record. To counter this problem, two dentists from New York made an agate burnisher that has had continued success. One member made an attempt at using mineral tooth-body material because he saw a difficulty in getting smaller agate burnishers made. His design worked well.

Care

• Tooth burnishers are made of steel, often hardened or superior quality, but because of their specific shapes and surface of the heads, burnishers should be handled with care. They are made for precision and although they are strong enough to sculpt hardening dental material and metal amalgams, they can still sustain damage if mishandled.